Killion: Niners’ game plan not easy to understand

Updated 6:43 pm, Saturday, January 24, 2015

Now that the Jim Harbaugh “parting of ways” fireworks are over and the cringe-worthy news conferences are completed — aside from living embarrassingly online forever — reality has sunk in.

The team has broken ties with the most successful era of the past two decades and is on to the next step. But, at least from the outside, this chapter doesn’t seem to be as tightly scripted as the first act.

This divorce was a long, long time coming. The plotting and scheming to get rid of Harbaugh was in the works for at least a year. The appointment of Jim Tomsula was also a big part of the equation.

But if there was a well-thought-out plan beyond that — ousting the bad guy, installing the boss’ favorite — it’s not obvious.

Tomsula is assembling a group to replace the highly regarded coaching staff that the 49ers had in place for the past four seasons. But now, nearly a month after the last game of the season and while their former coaches are already hard at work in other buildings, that staff is still not in place.

And the few hires that have been made aren’t exactly inspiring confidence.

Photo: Paul Chinn / The Chronicle

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In his new role, Niners head coach Jim Tomsula will have a tough act to follow after Jim Harbaugh’s successful run.

In his new role, Niners head coach Jim Tomsula will have a tough act to follow after Jim Harbaugh’s successful run.

Photo: Paul Chinn / The Chronicle

Killion: Niners’ game plan not easy to understand

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The first order of business, the most important job, should be an offensive coordinator. Tomsula is a first-time head coach with a defensive background on a team where offense was the biggest issue. He will need a strong offensive coordinator to lean on. But that critical position has not yet been filled.

Recent reports say that the 49ers are interested in Indianapolis tight ends coach Rob Chudzinski, whose contract expires Monday. The Rams also reportedly want to talk with him. Chudzinski worked with Cam Newton in Carolina. His tight ends were extremely productive last season in Indianapolis. He worked with Frank Gore as coordinator at the University of Miami. Chudzinski also was the Browns’ head coach for one ineffective 4-12 season in 2013.

Last week, Colts general manager Ryan Grigson — who has denied other teams permission to speak to Chudzinski while he is under contract — said that his job is to “keep good people in the building.”

Chudzinski, 46, could be a strong hire. But he also looks like a guy who wants to be a head coach again, which could lead to future turnover. (That’s one reason a coach like Marc Trestman would have been a good option for the 49ers — a “teacher” who is unlikely to become a head coach again, thus avoiding the Alex Smith Plan of a new coordinator every year for Colin Kaepernick).

Troubling for any offensive coordinator candidate: The 49ers have already hired half his staff, which is not the way the process usually works. Most coordinators want to bring in their own people and have a cohesive staff and vision, not a piecemeal group assembled by their bosses.

If Chudzinski is Plan A, but doesn’t come to the 49ers, who is Plan B? Lane Kiffin’s name was tossed around, but on Saturday, Alabama confirmed Kiffin would be staying at the school. That saves us from the ludicrous notion that the controversial, peripatetic Kiffin would bring stability to a quarterback who needs it, or any sense of “winning with class” to an organization that claims it.

It’s interesting to note that Chudzinski interviewed for the 49ers’ offensive coordinator position once before: in 2009, during the great O.C. hunt conducted by Mike Singletary. That January, the 49ers interviewed several candidates before finally offering the job to Scott Linehan, who turned them down and then took a position with the Lions. The 49ers ended up hiring the infamous Jimmy Raye.

During that search, candidates were reportedly turned off by the limited vision of the 49ers’ offense — run, run, run — by the inexperience of the head coach and by the lack of control they might have. Sounds familiar, right?

On defense, Eric Mangini has been hired to replace Vic Fangio, a downgrade in the eyes of anyone who has been following football. Mangini comes out of the Bill Belichick-Bill Parcells school and was a defensive coordinator for one year in New England before becoming head coach of first the Jets and then the Browns (yes, you’re correct, there is a strong Cleveland Browns thread running through this process, which cannot be viewed as a good thing). Mangini was widely considered a disaster as a head coach at both stops.

Mangini came aboard as a 49ers offensive consultant and then tight ends coach. The 49ers tight ends were terrible last season, but perhaps being on offense did actually help broaden Mangini’s perspective, which was the goal of his odd career path.

There are other coaches on the staff with more experience than Tomsula: Tony Sparano came across the bay from his stint as the Raiders’ interim head coach. Jason Tarver was the Raiders’ ineffective defensive coordinator. Over the weekend, the 49ers reportedly interviewed Perry Fewell, the Giants’ former defensive coordinator.

The staff will probably be experienced. But its assemblage seems fragmented, the process confounding.